[time-nuts] Google search tricks

ed palmer ed_palmer at sasktel.net
Mon Sep 5 02:31:50 UTC 2011


   I usually add the following to my searches to reduce (but not
   eliminate) the links back to ebay:
   -ebay -auction -bid -paypal -"buy it now"
   Other google tricks that I often use are:
   1.  quotation marks - match pages with this phrase.  e.g. "buy it now"
   2.  plus sign - match pages with this _exact_ text _only_.  Don't give
   me synonyms, similar words, or any of the other fuzz that was mentioned
   in another message.  Sometimes this makes no difference, sometimes it
   makes a huge difference.  e.g. +"gps antenna" +Motorola
   3.  'site' keyword - matches pages on only the stated site (or excludes
   if preceeded by the minus sign).  e.g.  site:www.febo.com or
   site:febo.com if there are multiple sites under one domain.  This is
   the best way to search the Time-Nut archives.  I've also used
   "-site:.info" (that's 'minus site colon period info' to weed out all
   sites that end with .info .
   4.  'filetype' keyword - match only the listed filetype.  e.g.
   filetype:pdf .  Here's the list of filetypes that Google can find:
   [1]http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=
   35287
   Ed
   On 9/4/2011 5:54 PM, Charles P. Steinmetz wrote:

     Dave wrote:
     Use "-text" in your search to exclude results with "text" on the
     page.  For example, "-ebay" will exclude all ebay listings (and any
     other page that mentions ebay).  I use this one a lot.  If your
     problem seller is eBay user "time47743", then using "-time47743"
     will exclude any pages with that eBay ID (including complaints in
     newsgroup archives about eBay user time47743, and any pages that use
     that string for another purpose).
     I strongly encourage folks to use the tools on the Google "advanced
     search" page -- you can save yourself a lot of grief wading through
     hundreds of thousands of hits for the few you want.
     Best regards,
     Charles

References

   1. http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=35287


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